


And in Trying, Become

by neveralarch



Category: Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell - Susanna Clarke
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-25
Updated: 2015-12-25
Packaged: 2018-05-09 05:06:22
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 610
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5526527
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/neveralarch/pseuds/neveralarch
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Jonathan tries. Oh God, does he try.</p>
            </blockquote>





	And in Trying, Become

**Author's Note:**

  * For [betony](https://archiveofourown.org/users/betony/gifts).



When Jonathan was ten, he caught a frog. He took it to show Henry, who was suitably impressed. He also, as a kindness, displayed the wriggling amphibian to Henry's sister, who was quite small and uninteresting and could only benefit from exposure to frogs.

Arabella regarded the frog. It gave up its struggles and regarded her back. Jonathan observed the interaction with some anticipation. Perhaps Arabella would scream.

"Poor thing," Arabella declared, instead. "Don't you have anything better to do?"

Jonathan was so taken aback that his fingers loosened, and the frog launched itself to freedom. "No," said Jonathan, watching it go. "I don't think so. Do I?"

"You should," said Arabella.

\---

When Jonathan was fourteen, he started writing poetry. He sent sonnets to Arabella - not love sonnets, of course, as she was extremely young and only mildly more interesting than before. But she had a very incisive mind and was not afraid to tell him what she thought of his efforts.

"They're terrible," said Arabella. "Truly awful."

"It was in imitation of Coleridge," said Jonathan. "Perhaps it's better if I read it? O, ere I fly this world, let burgeoning innocence—"

"Please don't," said Arabella.

"Well, what's wrong with it?" asked Jonathan.

"It's just words," said Arabella. "There's no meaning behind it, you're just stringing long words together and trying to make them rhyme."

"Isn't that what poetry is?" asked Jonathan.

Arabella regarded him with pitying eyes. It reminded Jonathan uncomfortably of how she had looked at his frog.

\---

When Jonathan was seventeen, he kept dogs.

"Why?" asked Arabella, who was becoming more interesting every day, yet no easier to impress.

"I do wish you wouldn't ask that question," said Jonathan.

"You don't like hunting," said Arabella. "And you don't keep sheep or cows. They're too friendly to be guard dogs."

Even now, the dogs were licking Arabella's hands. She bore it with amusement—when the dogs tried to lick Jonathan, he snatched his hands away in distaste. And sneezed.

"In fact," said Arabella, "I suspect that you don't like dogs at all."

"What do you _want_ me to do?" asked Jonathan.

"Oh, sell them I suppose." Arabella patted a dog. "Henry would love a companion."

"That's not what I meant," said Jonathan. "What occupation might I find that you think is worthy of my time?"

"Whatever makes you happy," said Arabella, rather absently. Jonathan despaired.

\---

Jonathan tried farming and engineering and industry. He stayed at school longer than his fellows, flitting between subjects like sparrow. He obtained several authentic fossils and cobbled them into an exceedingly unlikely creature that he called Woodhopius Rex. Arabella, who was the most interesting person Jonathan knew, sighed and pointed out that the thing had a arm-bone for a head.

"Perhaps it's a sort of insect," said Jonathan.

"I wish," began Arabella.

"Please don't," said Jonathan.

"I wish," said Arabella, a little more loudly, "that you might find something _useful_ —"

"No, you don't," said Jonathan. "The engineering was useful, and you didn't like that either."

"Well." Arabella smiled. "It _was_ useful, but you were so very bad at it."

"I'm good at very few things," said Jonathan. "I'm good at drinking, and gambling, and spending my father's money. Can't that be enough for you?"

"Is it enough for you?" asked Arabella.

"That wasn't the question," said Jonathan.

Arabella opened her mouth, and then closed it. She thought for a very long time, long enough for Jonathan to disassemble the skeleton back to its component parts.

"No," said Arabella, at last. "It's not."

"Thank you." Jonathan nodded and placed the fossils back in their box. "In that case, I shall have to keep trying."


End file.
